Lonely writer

The writing profession is a very lonely. Yes, many writers are loners and we enjoy our company, as long as we have some of our imaginary friends to play with - still it's tough at times.

As I work on a new story now, I feel the itch of turning around and asking someone, "so, what do you think?" I use my husband as a sounding board - but the guy loves me, what's he going to say, "yes, honey, this truly sucks." Of course not; he's too big to sleep comfortably on the couch.

I miss having a writer's group - I miss having people I can meet with and talk about how my work sucks and how I'm getting no where; and I miss having someone say, someone who's also a writer say that it's going to be okay, the book isn't total garbage. And of course, I'd like to do the same for a fellow writer.

This is one of the hardest parts of living in Denmark and having children and a career that has nothing to do with writing fiction. I remember I heard someone once say to me, "You can do anything you want, but can't do everything."

I don't have the time to join the one writer's group that I have found - and I am unable to find another that functions the way I write. Writers who meet over email and then meet for brunch a Sunday a month to rip each other's work to make it better.

For now, I write in solitude, not knowing if what I'm writing is good, bad, or great. I just read out a chapter of what I wrote to my husband and he said, "You got more? This is good." And I looked at him and said, "I don't want it to be good, I want it to knock your socks off." He responded, "No one knocks my socks off in the first chapter." Like that's supposed to make me feel better.

I need to be alone to write (a kid coming in to show me how Homer does the throat singing is hell on my concentration) - and I need to be with people so that I can write (I want to sit in a cafe and not all alone in a corner feeling like mountain man while I write) - it's quite a predicament.

If you're a writer and have access to a writer's group - go join it; and if you don't have one, try and create one. Writing alone is the only way to write - but the evaluation process doesn't have to be a lonely one. I will try and find critique partners, help, someone writer-type...something.